In­jured Kl­itschko won’t fight Joshua

BRI­TAIN’S IBF world heavy­weight cham­pion An­thony Joshua will not fight for­mer cham­pion Wladimir Klistchko in 2016 but pro­moter Ed­die Hearn ex­pects a fight in the spring.

The pair were close to agree­ing a bout for De­cem­ber 10 but Kl­itschko has picked up a “mi­nor in­jury” in train­ing.

The WBA had also yet to state whether its va­cant ti­tle would be on the line.

“While wait­ing on the WBA and with Kl­itschko’s in­jury, it was a non-starter,” said Hearn.

“Let’s get this over the line for March or April.”

Hearn has re­it­er­ated that Joshua will com­pete in Manch­ester on 10 De­cem­ber but ex­pects an of­fi­cial an­nounce­ment on a 2017 meet­ing with Ukrainian Kl­itschko later this week.

He added: “We will an­nounce that fight for the spring and give it the build-up it de­serves - prob­a­bly take it to a sta­dium as well. I’m cer­tain it will hap­pen in the spring.

“We are in talks with the Mil­len­nium Sta­dium [now the Prin­ci­pal­ity Sta­dium] about their dates in March and April - it has a roof and it can be a bit nippy in London in March or April.”

Bri­tish heavy­weight Tyson Fury has va­cated the WBA and WBO ti­tles and had his box­ing li­cence stripped by the Bri­tish Box­ing Board of Con­trol “pend­ing fur­ther in­ves­ti­ga­tion into anti-dop­ing and med­i­cal is­sues”.

Hearn is hope­ful the WBA will make its ti­tle avail­able for the pro­posed meet­ing of Joshua and Kl­itschko. New Zealan­der Joseph Parker is set to fight Mex­ico’s Andy Ruiz Jr for the WBO belt on 10 De­cem­ber.

Kl­itschko, who has 64 wins and four losses in his ca­reer, lost the WBA, WBO and IBF ti­tles to Fury in 2015.

Joshua picked up the IBF ti­tle - va­cated by Fury as he did not face a manda­tory chal­lenger - by knock­ing out Charles Martin in April.— BBC.